Yettigate: School of Wizardry and Witchcraft
by Takeru Mayakami
Summary: Modernity and Wizardry clash in the distant future. It includes character archetypes from MxO and Zero no Tsukaima in a Western Setting.
1. Start of the Second Year

The dew on the grass was frozen this early in the day. It was typical for this climate for it to be this chilly. Isaac was walking from his designated house's tower toward the first of his classes this week. This was his second year in this particular school.

Something whizzed above his head, but he didn't seem fazed by it. A gust of wind tossed his hair to the side and he patted it down. Out toward the right of the campus was the field where you could see students flying on their broomsticks trying to prepare for the first house matches of Quidditch.

You see: this was the school of witches and wizards, Yettigate School of Wizardry and Witchcraft. It was a fortress located in an otherwise desolate stretch of ice-laden tundra of Finland. Wards were put up to maintain the secrecy of the school from regular non-magical humans who may have adventured to the Ice.

Isaac yawned and entered the main tower. He made his way to the dining hall where he spotted some of his friends from his house, Folterbloom. To clarify, there were seven houses of Yettigate: Howlander, Folterbloom, Agnitro, Bellringer, Clodpile, Cloudfall, and Ostrelli. Each was named after a wizard known for what they excelled: Howlander and Animals, Folterbloom and Plants, Agnitro and Fire, Bellringer and Lightning, Clodpile and Earth, Cloudfall and Water, Ostrelli and Space.

The houses competed against each other for the yearly house cup. The students received points for their houses when they did well on their tests or if they performed some good deed. The most popular way to gain points was through the inter-house Quidditch matches. So, It wasn't abnormal for students to be excited over the matches.

There was a great flapping of wings as owls as Issac entered the dining hall. Wizards communicated with others by owl-post. Isaac wasn't expecting any mail, but his owl, Nemi, found its way to Isaac with a postcard attached to its leg. It was from his older brother, who took care of him and didn't have any magical aptitude. Their parents had been missing for six years now. They had gone to the far-east on a vacation and never returned.

The letter read:

_Dear Isaac,_

_ I hope this finds you in good spirits. Life is boring without you here. _

_Work is the same. The coworkers are having a barbeque night_

_this Friday. It might be a chance to make a good impression_

_on management. I'll tell you how it goes._

_ Let's Do Our Best,_

_ Lizt_

After, tucking the letter into his robes, Isaac spotted a dark haired boy going into the central garden surrounded by a group. Isaac kept running into this guy from the popular house of Howlander.

This was a week after their first encounter.

This particular Howlander was late for the placement tests. The second years were performing transfiguration spells at the front of the class.

The Howlander, Mox Ishtawa, was yanked into the hall by his collar by his house's head teacher. While walking down the stairs in this manner, the Howlander student tripped and fell into a Second year Ostrelli student who, in turn, fell against the transfigured table which reverted back into the rabbit it once was.

This Ostrelli girl, Julie Mercutio-Blaston, was somehow related to the people who overthrew the most powerful dark wizard of the last century. It's probably the most studied time period in our history since our current peace and freedom is due to his overthrow.

Isaac noted that it shows that lineage doesn't mean that you'd be a good wizard.

In fact in Isaac's trio of close friends, Teya was born from two muggle parents. Muggles were the wizard term for non-magical humans. She was near the top of our class last year and was very proficient in the toughest spells typical of our house.

Teya happened to be the person performing the transfiguration.

"Interference!" shouted Teya

"Don't fret about that, you'll get full marks as usual, Lighterfield," was the transfiguration teacher's soothing reply.

"Just tell the Spaced-out Zero to try and do the same without making something blast off."

"I… I'll do it right this time… for sure,"

"Don't push yourself, Julie," her usual companion spoke from down the line.

Nonetheless, most of the students realized the danger and stood toward the back of the class.

Julie made the required wand movements and with a loud "crack" the rabbit turned into a table with the class pleasantly surprised, but in the next second the leg of the table caught fire and reverted back into a rabbit with its poor tail burning. It jumped onto the Howlander, Mox, and set his clothes ablaze. Teya did a basic water spell and soon the first fire was put out by rain from a small cloud that appeared above the rabbit. Mox was rolling on the ground trying to put the fire out. Teya sighed and performed the cloud summoning again.


	2. Muggle

The group of Howlanders entered the central garden, walking toward the tower where our first class was held. They were still joking about Mox's shirtless day, since he decided that he would go the day pretending to be a Muggle. The truth was, he was a Muggle. He had some circumstances that brought him to Yettigate the year before. The headmaster, Brimmi Kiskovitz, had allowed him to stay on campus with a special talisman that negated curses to protect him. Last year, he had to prove that he could perform a feat of any kind of magic.

Mox hadn't yet succeeded, but he had lucked out on trials that required him to use magic. He hoped that he could get by this year the same way. Other than the will to learn magic, he had a particular reason he wanted to stay. If he had to return to the non-magical human world, he would have to have his memory erased. There was someone in particular who he didn't want to forget.

"Hi, Mox," this particular girl said from the side of me. It was her, Carrie Tacoma, that he didn't want to forget.

"Hey, Carrie," Mox began, but as soon as he acknowledged Carrie another student took him into a playful headlock.

"You're going to win the House Quidditch this year, right!"

"I wasn't planning to do it this year just to give the other houses a chance!"

He recalled the terrifying Quidditch matches where he had been flying strapped on the broom. He was hanging for dear life as he clumsily maneuvered in the air using a talisman he had gotten from the headmaster. He had lucked out with his good eyesight and flew right into the golden snitch just trying to avoid being hit by other players and the bludgers. The golden snitch was a small gold ball supported by magical wings, and the bludgers were larger balls which strove to knock players off their brooms at random. Mox didn't want to take the risk of being injured and everybody learning that he was non-magical. So, he was avoiding the entry into the team this year.

"You're kidding, right!" the Howlander student exclaimed. "You're our best man!"

For some reason of his luck and his show of physical abilities, he had convinced his house that he was an exceptionally talented wizard. Mox also used a bit of his knowledge of science to compensate for his lack of magic.

The main tower's bell rang, and Mox used this excuse to run towards the tower and avoid the grilling. He was faster on foot than most of the wizards here.

"There he goes, showing off his modesty! He doesn't even use a charm to go that fast," the inquiring student idolized, "Hey, wait up!"

In their potions class, there wasn't much talk happening with all the information being thrown at them today. Tacoma pulled no punches. He was the head teacher of the Folterbloom House and Carrie's father. He knew about Mox's situation through about halfway of last year. Even so, Tacoma took it tougher on Mox since mixing potions didn't require him to use a wand most of the time.

His partner was someone he knew fairly well as the snide top student of his year in Howlander. "Don't tell me you left your wand at home again. You could just get it mailed here."

"That makes it easier if I don't have to tell you."

"Hmm!" was his lofty response.

"Just so you know, my family can't afford a new wand, and my wand was lost."

"I see," his manner changed. "Well, I'll help you out for now."

The rest of the class didn't have any interruptions. As they filed for the exit, Mox searched for Carrie. She was leaving with a couple of her girl friends talking about what they were cooking for dinner instead of dining in the hall.

Mox wished he could taste her cooking as he put his things together.

"Let me have a word with you, Mr. Ishtawa," it felt like he could read minds sometimes. He was very overprotective of his daughter as Mox knew from last year. "If you do anything to disturb Carrie's education this year, you'd better be prepared to take the next boat out of Yettigate."

"No, sir! I wouldn't want to bother Carrie, but I'll prove it that I could stay here on my merits," Mox began. He added in softer voice, "Then maybe you could approve of me."

"Mr. Ishtawa, you said something."

"No, it was nothing, sir!"

Mox left on that note, and hurried to catch up with Carrie.


	3. Warning

Julie Sinatra-Thoreau-Granger-Langdon-Mercutio-Blaston was sulking in her morning transfiguration class, as she remembering the failure of her placement test. She was considered an aristocrat due to her prominent lineage. So, she had unreasonable expectations thrust upon her. She earned her nickname "Spaced-out" due to her inability to perform simple spells without causing them to burst, ignite, or fly uncontrollably.

Today, the object of their lesson was to partially transfigure wings onto a frog. Julie caused the frog she was assigned to to burst with a "pop."

"Yeck! Spaced-Out, you got Frog Guts on my designer robes!" The girl next to her table exclaimed angrily.

She was known to cause trouble with her spells, but there was a near disaster she caused in her first year, but that was only known to headmaster and her closest companion, Thom Cystro.

"Hey look, Yashtaka, it's sizzling. You know they consider frogs a delicacy in the Muggle world. Try eating it," Thom tried to joke about it.

"I knew that!" Yashtaka tried to regain composure. She prodded a piece of frog innards with her wand.

"It's just their legs, you hear."

Yashtaka blushed at this and stormed away saying she needed to clean herself.

Julie relaxed a little after Thom's quip. She spoke, "You know you didn't need to cover for me. I admit that I'm bad at these things."

"Just give it some more practice. I'm sure you have the potential."

She chuckled, "That was funny, though. She was actually going to taste frog."

The remainder of class passed as Thom only managed to make the frog hover for about half a minute. He seemed content with his attempt as the central bells rang ending the class.

The two Ostrelli students made their way to their house tower for the afternoon break, before evening classes began. They separated between the girls and boys section to put their books away.

Julie decided to take a short nap before she returned to the common room. It took little to doze off into slumber.

She wasn't in her room anymore. It was the ice-field in front of Yettigate, and she could see Yettigate burning. Julie didn't expect to have a dream, but she could tell that she wasn't awake. She heard a voice behind her, but was unable to pick out the form.

"You can't save them the way you are now."

"Show yourself!" she cried out.

At that, she started and awoke in her bed.

"I should say something to Kiskovitz about this premonition."

She knew premonitions were special dreams that wizards have. She had this happen the year before, but she didn't heed the warning. She wouldn't make the same mistake.


	4. Elemental Basis

It was a weekend morning, and Isaac dreaded the thing at which he was staring. It could have been any other subject. He closed the book and prepared himself again.

"You look like you're sweating even in this temperature," Teya said as she took the seat next to Isaac in the library.

The other girl in their trio, Melanie Feldspar, spoke as she took the other seat next to Isaac, "It seems like it's _that_ again."

"Ah, let me see then." Teya added, "I could help."

"No, I'll stomach it," Isaac

"Magical Creature Anatomy isn't as bad as you make it out to be," Melanie tried to console him, except she seemed to be stifling a giggle.

It started last year with a bad experience involving a rare cupidslug. Isaac tripped while dissecting the creatures and accidentally swallowed the slime they were trying to extract. He fell in love with the first person he saw. It happened to be the guy that helped him to his feet. Uncontrollably, Isaac held onto this unfortunate person's hand for an awkward amount of time. He was administered magical first-aid by the proctor, but the entire class was in hysterics. From then, it gave him a nauseating feeling whenever he cut open other magical creatures.

"Look, life is rough in some way for any person," Isaac tried to mitigate the embarrassment. "Don't think that I'm all flowers and candy with everybody I meet."

"Don't worry. We're here to support you," Teya said with a straight face.

After that awkward conversation followed a silence. The two girls opened their texts. They worked separately, taking down notes and talking rarely. Then, after a couple hours had passed, the three decided to work on their Eastern Alchemy homework together.

They were discussing eastern magical history, "Here, it says: Eastern Homunculi were a popular summoning when pseudo-philosopher stones were openly traded from traditional western sources. Then there was the period of isolationism…"

They were interrupted by a sudden shaking of the entire floor. Isaac sounded tired, "Hey, that was an earthquake."

Teya responded nonchalantly, "It seems so."

"Hey you two, I see some dust rising from the central lawn's dueling arena," Melanie observed.

"You don't think it could be your extended cousin from Clodpile," Isaac said to Melanie. He referred to an over-confidant, well-chiseled boulder of a guy. Physically, he was the pinnacle of what traits dominated Clodpile. The problem was: this Clodpile was a jock that somehow typified everything his house weren't supposed to be, with humility as the main deficit.

"Hmm, I don't know if Extro is that strong."

"Let's go check it out anyway. I could use some distraction," Isaac decided.

The trio packed their belongings and headed down the simple labyrinth of the Folterbloom pyramid. It was this way because of the space required by the multistory garden that dominated most of the building. Students could be seen tending to the plants in various plots around the garden.

They were sweating by the time they got outside. Yettigate may be located in a tundra, but Folterbloom's greenhouse effect made it one of the warmest places to be on campus. Outside, in the central lawn, there had been a perpetual ward placed that regulated the temperature to around room temperature.

They heard clapping by the time they reached the arena. Extro was laughing on top of a small hill, "My name is Extro Minecreft, and I have won again."

"Those upperclassmen from Folterbloom were pretending to be novices from Bellringer and fight some unsuspecting Clodpile students in a two-to-one." The trio overheard a student as they walked down to the field.

"How despicable, too bad for them: Extro wouldn't have even noticed their affinity," was the listener's reply.

Affinities were a critical part of Yettigate's structure. As each house was affiliated with a particular proficiency or affinity, the students had certain advantages over other houses. The advantages were as follows:

Howlander's animal affinity was strong against Folterbloom's plant affinity but weak against Ostrelli's Space Affinity;

Folterbloom's plant was strong against Clodpile's earth but weak against Howlander's animal and Agnitro's fire;

Clodpile's earth was strong against Bellringer's lightning but weak against Folterbloom plants;

Bellringer's lightning was strong against Cloudfall's water but weak against Clodpile's earth;

Cloudfall's water was strong against Agnitro's fire but weak against Bellringer's lightning;

Agnitro's fire was strong against Folterbloom's plant but weak against Cloudfall's water.

Ostrelli's space affinity had no weaknesses, except that Ostrelli students tended to be have a weaker magnitude of power compared to the other house's students.

The defeated Folterbloom students staggered out of the arena. Isaac went down to them, "You guys always end up doing something stupid. Don't give Folterbloom a bad name."

They turned their faces to the side and scoffed in unison.

"We didn't expect to have any trouble from a Clodpile."

"That's not the point!" Melanie scolded them.

"Hey, if it isn't Melanie!" Extro's deep, loud voice boomed over their conversation. He walked toward the Folterblooms. "You know it still surprises me that you aren't in Clodpile like the rest of the family."

"I told you before: Father's and Mother's affinities were antagonistic. So, it's normal for the child to take on a completely random affinity."

"Yeah, that's right. Usually, our Clodpile traits overpower the other affinity. Aunt must be very strong."

"That's right," Melanie said beaming.

"It's amazing that you managed to take out two upperclassmen Folterblooms," Isaac chipped into the conversation.

"It's Zack, right? Yeah, I guess I don't know my own strength," Extro laughed.

"We've known each other for a year. It's Isaac!"

"Yes, that's good," Extro brushed off Isaac. "Keep taking good care of Melanie for me, okay. I've got to go wash up and grab something to eat."

"We'd better go back to studying," Teya spoke now.

"That's the first thing you say outside!" Isaac and Melanie exclaimed at the same time.

Teya shrugged.


	5. Request

Mox walked down a corridor to the Howlander's den at the lower level of their building. There, he would meet up with for a couple matches of Wizard chess before starting his weekend's assignments with Carrie's father. It was as if he was a typical jock that needed extra tutoring. In reality, it was to keep his lack of wizardry a secret. It wasn't so bad even if he had to do some chores for Pr. Tacoma.

An owl flew onto his shoulder before he made it to the lounge. Mox untied the parchment from the owl's feet. It read:

"See me ASAP! Password is "Swedish Fish." – Prf. Kiskovitz"

One had to walk to the top of a pyramid and say the correct password to the respective guardian statue found there. Mox began walking away from the den to make his assent. It took him a longer than expected to climb the stairs. There were a bunch of hippogriffs grazing and blocking the way to the stairs, and he had to avoid getting burned by a large phoenix lazing around the upper flights.

Finally, Mox stood in front of a sculpture of a sphinx.

"Let me see if I could do this," he said to himself. He placed a seal he was given as a key to the Administrative ring. This was if he needed anything which happened often throughout the past year. "Swedish Fish," Mox spoke.

The seal glowed momentarily and a stairway revealed itself. Mox made his way up. He was always amazed at the administrative ring since the outer wall was transparent. Moxo took in the view when he reached the ring. According to last year's Magical History class, the administrative ring was an addition to modernize the school. There was a white field stretching toward every direction all the way to the horizon. It was also apparent, Mox noted, why Yettigate was called the "Northern Snowflake." The sunlight reflected off the snow onto the seven pyramids.

Mox made his way to see the headmaster. He knocked on the door of Kiskovitz's room. It opened as he knocked, "Professor Kiskovitz, you called me."

Mox noticed that Kiskovitz did a little jump from her seat, "Oh, hello Mox, you startled me."

"I'll be careful next time, Professor."

"I need your help on a very serious matter," She started. "We've found a device from the Muggle world that shouldn't be here."

Kiskovitz showed him a bunch of wires. "These devices don't show up using any of our spells, so we want you to look out for them."

Mox nodded.

Kiskovitz continued, "We definitely have more people within the school grounds than are accounted with the faculty and students. We haven't had any unnoticed spells being actively used, so there is a possibility that these intruders are Muggles and not Wizards. I don't want to start a panicked witch-hunt for the Muggles, so we want you to look for them."

Mox nodded again.

"You know how there are wards around the school's perimeter that should repel any curious Muggle should they venture this far. We must assume that they have been helped by a Wizard. So, I think you should be wary. Also, if you need any help, contact either me or Professor Tacoma," She concluded.

"Okay, I'll do it on the condition that you'll keep me here throughout this school year. I might not be able to do magic, you know. But, I think it's important to figure out the situation here, so I think it's fair."

"I could see to that, yes."

"Thanks, Professor Kiskovitz."

With a big grin on his face Mox headed toward the door. It opened earlier than he reached the boundary. A short girl with long, brownish-blonde hair ran into his chest.

"Ah! I need to speak to the Headmaster quickly. Excuse me."

Mox stepped to the side and walked out into the light.


	6. On Her Own

Julie hurried through the administrative ring to Kiskovitz's office. Her curly, long hair was flying behind her.

She was in front of Kiskovitz's office and performed the spell to open the door. As she moved forward she hit something solid. Looking up she saw a vaguely familiar face. She said to him, "I need to speak to the Headmaster quickly. Excuse me."

"That's Ms. Blaston I hear."

"Yes, Professor Kiskovitz. It's me."

"It's a bit early in the year for something to go wrong. I hope it isn't anything like that."

"It's as you fear, unfortunately. I had a vivid dream. It was terrible Yettigate was in flames, and there was a person there with me. I think that person was responsible for the destruction."

"It's too early to jump to conclusions, but I'm extremely worried for various reasons," Kiskovitz began. "Please do me a favor and keep this to yourself. I don't want the students to panic. They may also cause you some problems. I'll talk with the other professors and figure out how to handle it."

"There's nothing I could do to help," Julie said disappointed.

"Let the adults handle this. It's what our job is."

"Okay," was her response, but she wasn't convinced. "I'll get back to my studies now. Have a good day."

Julie exited and walked into the light. It's true that she had studies, but she needed to do something. Yettigate was as much her home as her family's apartment in New York. She would do what she could and make sure that no evil came to harm her friends.

That person said she was weak, so she would do some extra tutorials to make sure she could face that person. Then she remembered how she couldn't even perform the basic spells. She could ask Thom for help. It wasn't certain to happen, so she didn't want to worry Thom by telling him what she saw.


	7. Entertainment vs Academics

Isaac sipped on his favorite, custom-mixed, and slow-brewed Myra's Milky Moot Root Tea. He liked when he woke up early to see the dawn. On the other hand, his roommate needed multiple alarms just to make breakfast hour at the mess hall. This was good since Isaac made some noise clumsily preparing his morning tea.

As he watched from the balcony of this year's third floor, Isaac noted the Quidditch players gearing up for their morning practice. After centuries of having player's badly wounded, the International Quidditch Council increased the amount of safety equipment needed by the players. The first inter-house matches were scheduled after the midterm exams.

That reminded Isaac of the reason he was up so early. Since it was exam period, he needed every waking moment to prepare. Isaac's plan was to read some Care of Magical Creatures before he met with Teya and Melanie for breakfast. Then he wouldn't need to worry about their snide remarks about his fear.

Even with this plan in mind, he was distracted by a monthly publication of a magazine on the common room's coffee table. It was about happenings on the Magical Entertainment Weekly Service. He followed the latest independent studio, Legends of Werelocks, releases. An article read:

_…and the chemistry (or should I say: magic) between the leads, Gwelanin and Erith, made it worth the watch. It was a wise decision by the director to put the two together. _

_The scene where the creatures were released from captivity touched upon the negligence that has been shown by this generation toward magical animals. I personally found the subjugation of the unicorns unsettling._

_The thrilling plot of the muggle fighting against the mistreatment of the magical creatures was touching…_

Isaac read a couple more articles, too engrossed to notice the steady flow of students getting ready for the day's classes, before he realized breakfast hour had started. He rushed to make it before the cafeteria closed and was angry at himself that he didn't get any studying done.


End file.
